Living the Dream

Living the Dream with the Struggle to Decriminalise Sex Work

In this episode Dave (@withsobersenses) chats with Elena Jeffreys (@ElenaJeffrys) from the sex worker organisation Respect Inc. Elena talks about the history of sex worker self-organisation, the conditions of sex workers in Australia today and the importance of the struggle to decriminalise sex work to improving the working conditions and lives of sex workers. Elena digs into the what is wrong with the ‘Swedish Model’, the negative and violent impact it has had on peoples’ lives, and the role that section of feminism and the Left have played in instituting it. Content Warning – the episode mentions violence against women.

 

Music by Goran Bregovic – (with possibly ambiguous lyrics)

Living The Dream with the Anti-Nuclear Movement in Japan

In this episode Dave (@withsobersenses) chats with excellent comrade Alexander Brown about the anti-nuclear movement in Japan. Alexander talks about the role nuclear power plays in Japanese society, the pre-Fukushima influence of the New Left, the freeter movement and alter-globalisation struggles, the impact the Fukushima disaster had, the tactics and strategy of the movement, its links with the global wave of ‘squares’ and ‘Occupys’, what’s happening now and the increasingly importance of solidarity in East Asia. Alexander really digs into the thought, concepts and understandings of the movement.

You can find Alexander’s book, thesis and blog below.

 

Anti-nuclear Protest in Post-Fukushima Tokyo

 

Power struggles: the strategies and tactics of the anti-nuclear movement in contemporary Tokyo

 

Love From Tokyo

Living The Dream reads On Fairness by Sally McManus

In this episode Jon (@JonPiccini) and Dave (@withsobersenses) review ACTU Secretary Sally McManus’ book On Fairness.We try to dig in to how McManus fails to understand the actual dynamics of capitalism – rather blaming bad people and bad ideas for the problems we face. This means the book points us in the wrong direction. Rather we need to address the core dynamics in our society if we want to fight exploitation and oppression today and struggle for and create a society where we can live lives worth living.

You can find Jon’s article on Labor, Trade Unions and the White Australia Policy here:

            A White Working Man’s Country

Living The Dream whilst abolishing prisons

In this episode Dave talks with Bridget Harilaou about the recent Imagining Abolition Conference organised by Sisters Inside. Bridget discusses the ideas that were discussed there, their implications for struggles and the kind of future abolishing prisons points to. She digs into how prisons quilt together histories of colonialism, the operation of patriarchy and the oppression of Indigenous people and thus why the struggle against them is so important.

Bridget’s work can be found in many places. Here is some of it: 

Flavours Of Forgiveness — What Bao Tells Us About Family

What we get wrong about smart Asian kids

Why Asian Australians should call out racism beyond their own culture

Activist Or Professional? A Feminist Question

Sisters Inside do lots of amazing things. They are currently raising funds to free Aboriginal women imprisoned for the non-payment of fines. Chip in if you can

Living The Dream in 2019!

2019! Wooooo! In this episode of Living The Dream Jon (@jonpiccini) and Dave (@withsobersenses) take off the party-hats, pick the streamers from their shoulders of their tuxedo jackets, set aside the Champagne flutes and have a chat about what 2018 was all about what we think is going to happen in 2019. Climate Change, fascism, #libspill, disaster communism, power prices, radical social democracy, #changetherules, #metoo, book recommendations and angry clowns air boxing whilst riding unicycles – this episode has it all!

 Some stuff we talk about includes:

Cronulla 2.0? : Racist assembly @ St Kilda Beach, Saturday, January 5, 2019

Kieran’s Review

Stephen Wertheim – Return of the Neocons

Keir Milburn and Bertie Russell - What can an institution do? Towards Public-Common partnerships and a new common-sense

Cinzia Arruzza - From Women’s Strikes to a New Class Movement: The Third Feminist Wave

Endnotes – The Holding Pattern

Salvage Editorial Collective - Salvage Perspectives #6: Evidence of Things Not Seen

Out of the Woods - The Uses of Disaster

The Dig - The Green New Deal with Kate Aronoff

Madeline Lane-McKinley - #MeToo From Below

What’s going on with Change the Rules? A report from the Melbourne Delegates Meeting 25th September

Jobs You Can Count On – a secure work future for Australia

Goodbye Neoliberalism

Class War #73 Class War is Dead…Lone Live the Class War

The Universalism Debate

 

Voice of the People: The White Australia Policy (1962)

 

Living The Dream with the Anti-Poverty Network Queensland

In this episode Dave (@withsobersenses) chats with Andrew(@fernandre3000) and Feargal(@feargal89) from the Anti-Poverty Network Qld. We talk about what they have been up to, what their strategy is and how this has gone. APN Qld are one of the most exciting developments going on in Queensland right now with friends and comrades leaving old and stale forms of activism behind to experiment with organising based on where people are at and in ways that directly speak to lived conditions. It is exciting stuff.

APN have a conference coming up We Deserve A Living - Anti-Poverty Week Conference 2018

We talk about:

 ‘We had Marx, they had Pauline’: left organising in poor communities by Joanna Horton

Working for the class: The praxis of the Wollongong Out of Workers’ Unionby Nick Southall

Music by Gang of Four

Living The Dream with a UBI whilst fighting against racism and for public housing

In this episode Dave(@withsobersenses) chats again with Michael. We talk about a recent article he wrote on Universal Basic Income and the debates it sparked with proponents of a Jobs Guarantee, his attendance at and thoughts on Tim Soutphommasane’s recent Whitlam Institute speech on combating racism, and Michael’s participation in recent struggles for increased Public Housing.

 

Stuff we mention includes:

 Michael Thorn – Is There Room for Universal Basic Income in Australia

 Tim Soutphommasane - Confronting the Return of Race Politics

 The Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union

Living the Dream after the Plebiscite and amongst the Alt-Right

In this episode Dave (@withsobersenses) and Jon (@jonpiccini) catch up with Simon Copland (@SimonCopland) ‏ again. We talk about how despite the plebiscite being a fantastic victory the Left (for lack of a better term) seems determined to see it as a defeat and what the impact of this is. Simon also talks about going to, live tweeting from and then writing about a recent Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux talk and his thoughts about how the struggle against reaction can be renovated.

Things we mention include:

Simon Copland - Racists on speaking tour: rethinking our response

Alison Pennington - On the Plebiscite: Beyond Defeatism, Moralism and the Politics of Scarcity

Red Action - Declaration Of Independence

You can find Simon’s work here and our older episode with him here .

Living The Dream with the National Disability Insurance Scheme Ep 2

In this episode Dave (@withsobersenses) chats with friend of the show Michael. Michael talks about how the NDIS has changed the experience of those that work in care and community services, how it has impacted work conditions and how it has undermined the kind of care that those on the NDIS receive. We also talk about what does this mean for struggle around these issues? What are the unions doing? What are the workers doing? How does this impact with a larger question about the struggle against poverty in Australian society?

This is the second show we have done on the NDIS. Our first episode can be found here

Living The Dream with the Communist Party of Australia and Indigenous Struggles in the 1920s and 30s

In this episode Dave(@withsobersenses) and Jon (@jonpiccini) chat with Padraic Gibson (@paddygibson) about his research into the Communist Party of Australia and its early, or lack there of, engagement with Indigenous struggles in the 1920s and 30s. Not only is the history fascinating but Paddy also really digs into what was wrong with socialist and communist thought at the time, and the inheritance of Marx and Engel’s work, that made it hard for the CPA to connect with these struggles. How and why did this change? And how do these concerns play out today?

Sadly Jon’s internet dropped out 15 or 20 minutes into the conversation

Paddy is a member of Solidarity and his work can be found there.

Paddy would like to acknowledge that the history about the links between the Garvyist movement and Aboriginal activists in Australia in the 1920s he talks about comes from John Maynard’s book Fight for Liberty and Freedom

Paddy was nominated as an interviewee by John Passant when John donated to Living the Dream. Thanks John!